In terminology, self-organization, an ontic opening and or anthropomorphic labeled or conceptualized concept, tends to be defined as the spontaneous order arising in a system when certain parameters of the system reach critical values. [8]
The term "self-organization" is a misused and often misconstrued term, using the prefix self-, referring to either hypothetically isolated (or ill-defined) systems or systems subjected to an external energy or heat flux that form patterns through interactions internal to the system, which are also, at the same time, in a contradictory manner, said to do so without intervention by external directing influences. [1] The term is very-often found convoluted together, with ill-conceived thermodynamic or entropy arguments, in efforts to explain biology, particularly complexity and evolution. The classic example of self-organization used is the phenomenon of Bénard cell formation, in which hexagonal shaped structures, comprised of liquid silicone or whale oil atoms and molecules, are said to “self-organize” from a homogeneous fluid system, among themselves, once the oil, after being placed on a hot plate, is heated past a certain Renold’s number of heat flow. [2] The term is often confounded together with cybernetics, information theory, and emergence.
Origin of term
In 1943, English neurologist Ross Ashby who reasoned that: [3]
“An outstanding property of the nervous system is that it is self-organizing, i.e. in contact with a new environment the nervous system tends to develop that internal organization which leads to behavior adapted to that environment.”
Ashby followed this up with a concise set of principles of self-organizing systems in 1947, postulating that “a machine can be at the same time (a) strictly determinate in its actions, and (b) yet demonstrate a self-induced change of organization.” [3] In 1961, Ashby notes that: “the adjective [self-organization] is, if used loosely, ambiguous, and if used precisely, self-contradictory”. [3] On the question of organization, Ashby is quoted as asking the question: “can a system be self-organizing?” To which he answers: “no system can permanently have the property that it changes properties.” [6] Ashby later convoluted his ideas on brain self-organization together with American electrical engineer Claude Shannon’s ideas on information entropy. [7]
In the 1950s, the work of Ashby was being incorporated into the writings of those such as Norbert Weiner. By 1960, the term self-organization was being found convoluted with entropy explanations.
In 1977, Belgian chemist Ilya Prigogine, Self-Organization in Non-Equilibrium Systems, mixed together his dissipative structures theory with that of the conception of self-organization. [5] This logic influenced many, such as American biochemist Stuart Kauffman, who in 1995 came to further mixed in a Prigoginean-type far-from-equilibrium thermodynamics logic, such as free energy, into a self-organizing theory of evolution. [6]
Difficulties on term
The idea of self-organization attributes an anthropomorphic sort of free-will and perpetual motion to chemical systems, such that the atoms and molecular species are viewed to “choose” among themselves to assemble into ordered patterns. In contrast, such structures are always “forced” organizations, due to internal quantum electrodynamics, if the system is isolated, or to external force, if the system is closed or open, rather than self-organizations.
A precursory debunking of self-organization ideas was the 1490 debunking of "self-motion" was debunked by Leonardo da Vinci who stated: “nothing whatever can be moved by itself, but its motion is effected through another. There is no other force.” Isaac Newton, wrapped up in religious confusion, in circa 1674 stated: “god who gave animals self motion beyond our understanding is without doubt able to implant other principles of motion in bodies which we may understand as little. Some would readily grant this may be a spiritual one; yet a mechanical one might be shown.”
In 1993, German chemist Friedrich Cramer, in his “The Entropic Versus the Anthropic Principle: on the Self-Organization of Life”, a cosmology and philosophy conference proceedings chapter, stated outright and frankly that the notion of “self-organization” lets the metaphysical into physics (see: ontic openings):
“With the term ‘self-organization’ one touches on the metaphysical element of a scientific evolution theory.”
This, in Cramer's view, justifies the notion of creation by god, as he sees things, and discusses how he thinks "dead matter" equates to equilibrium. [9]
See also
● Emergence
References
1. (a) Camazine, Scott, Deneubourge, Jean-Louis, Franks, Nigel R., Sneyd, James, Theraulaz, Guy, Bonabeau, Eric. (2001). Self-Organization in Biological Systems (pg. 7). Princeton University Press.
(b) Dalenoort, G.J. (1989). The Paradigm of Self-Organization: Current Trends in Self-Organization (pg. 44). Taylor & Francis.
2. Edis, Taner. (2006). Science and Nonbelief (pgs. 69-70). Greenwood Publishing Group.
3. Dyson, George. (1997). Darwin Among the Machines (pg. 175-76). De Capo Press.
4. Ross Ashby (quotations) – George Washington University.
5. Nicolis, G. and Prigogine, Ilya. (1977). Self-Organization in Non-Equilibrium Systems: From Dissipative Structures to Order Through Fluctuations. Wiley.
6. Kauffman, Stuart. (1995). At Home in the Universe - the Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
7. Ashby, Ross W., and Conant, Roger. (1981). Mechanisms of Intelligence (pg. 237). Eipiphiny Society.
8. Daintith, John. (2005). Oxford Dictionary of Science. Oxford University Press.
9. Cramer, Friedfrich. (1993). “The Entropic Versus the Anthropic Principle: on the Self-Organization of Life”, in: The Anthropic Principle: Proceedings of the Second Venice Conference on Cosmology and Philosophy (pgs. 117-27). Cambridge University Press.
Further reading
● Shalizi, Cosma R. (2001). “Causal Architecture, Complexity, and Self-Organization in Time Series and Cellular Automata.” (pdf). PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 182-pgs. May 04.
External links
● Self-organization – Wikipedia.
